Tomorrow Is Forever

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Tomorrow Is Forever
Tomorrow is forever.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Irving Pichel
Screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee
Based onTomorrow Is Forever
1943 novel
by Gwen Bristow
Produced by David Lewis
Starring Claudette Colbert
Orson Welles
George Brent
Lucile Watson
Richard Long
Natalie Wood
Joyce MacKenzie
Cinematography Joseph A. Valentine
Edited byErnest J. Nims
Music by Max Steiner
Color process Black-and-white
Production
company
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • February 20, 1946 (1946-02-20)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.3 million [1]
Box office$3,250,000 (US rentals) [2]

Tomorrow Is Forever is a 1946 American romantic drama film directed by Irving Pichel, and starring Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles and George Brent. It was also the film debut of Richard Long and Natalie Wood. It was distributed by RKO Radio Pictures and was based upon the 1943 serialized novel of the same name by Gwen Bristow. [3]

Contents

Plot

Elizabeth (Colbert) and John (Welles) are a newly married couple, separated when John goes off to fight in World War I. Elizabeth is notified by telegram of John's death just before Christmas 1918. At the same time, she learns that she is pregnant. After the baby is born, she agrees to marry Lawrence Hamilton (Brent), warning him that she could never love him the way she loved John. They raise the baby as Hamilton's. Cut to the Invasion of Poland, with young John, now grown, eagerly following the war news.

John, however, is still alive, but after being disfigured in the war he has undergone plastic surgery, making him almost unrecognizable. He is nursed back to health by Dr. Ludwig. Twenty years later, he returns to America as Erich Kessler, an Austrian who speaks with a pronounced accent, and begins working at Hamilton's company, unaware that he married Elizabeth. Kessler is accompanied by his eight-year old foster daughter, Margaret (Wood), whose parents, Dr. Ludwig and his wife, have been killed.

During a luncheon at Hamilton's house, Kessler is stunned to meet Mrs. Hamilton and realizes it is Elizabeth. He quickly deduces that the Hamilton's 20-year old son Drew (Long) (“short for John Andrew”) is his own.

Drew is anxious to go to Canada and join the Royal Air Force. Kessler is supportive of Drew's ideas but Elizabeth is horrified at the thought of losing her son the way she lost her husband. She begins to suspect that Kessler is actually John and confronts him with her suspicion. He denies his identity. Elizabeth tells Kessler he is no longer welcome in her home for supporting Drew's plan to go to war, but she relents when Kessler reveals that Margaret's parents were murdered by the Nazis.

Drew decides to go to Canada without his parents' permission. Kessler intercepts him at the train station during a rain storm and brings Drew back home, but he is greatly fatigued by his ordeal in the rain. Elizabeth begs Kessler to admit that he is her husband, but he steadfastly refuses. Instead, he implores her to forget the past and live in the present.

Elizabeth goes upstairs and tells Drew that he can join the RAF and Kessler leaves. Back at home, Kessler collapses as he tries to burn a letter from Elizabeth. The next day, the Hamiltons arrive to thank Kessler for bringing Drew home and learn of his death. Elizabeth comforts the distraught Margaret and the Hamiltons instinctively adopt her and take her to their home, leaving the partially burnt letter in the fireplace.

Cast

Production

Natalie Wood's screen test for the role required her to act out the scene where a party popper makes her recall the murder of her character's parents by Nazis. Because she had worked with Irving Pichel on his previous film Happy Land , she was too happy to see him during the test in order to properly cry at first. During production, she had to wear a dental bridge after she lost two of her baby teeth. [4]

Boycott

The film was boycotted in Aiken, South Carolina because Orson Welles mistakenly identified the town as the location of Isaac Woodard's blinding. In July and August 1946, Welles devoted five episodes of Orson Welles Commentaries to the brutal attack on Woodard. Aiken is near Batesburg-Leesville, South Carolina where the attack actually occurred. Welles' initial misidentification of the location led to protests and threats of lawsuits in Aiken, in addition to the boycott of his current film. [5]

Reception

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times skewers the film as a "hackneyed and over-wrought telling of the Enoch Arden tale" in his review for The New York Times . He credits Welles with a "studied display of overacting" that distracts from the poor script. Crowther calls Woods' acting "meretricious", but concludes, "Irving Pichel has directed the film ponderously from Lenore Coffee's vacuous script. Tomorrow seems forever coming after an hour and a half of what goes on." [6]

Writing for Turner Classic Movies, Jeremy Arnold observes: “Like so many melodramas of the time, the story may be preposterous, but it is lent compassion and sensitivity by a talented cast and crew.” [7]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 60% on the Tomatometer. [8]

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References

  1. Stengel, Fred (September 12, 1945). "14 RKO Pictures to Exceed Million in Prod. Cost in Coming 'Year of Years'". Variety . Vol. 159, no. 13. New York City. p. 4. Retrieved August 27, 2020 via Internet Archive.
  2. Golden, Herb (January 1, 1947). "Metro, Par Top Distribs' Take". Variety. Vol. 165, no. 4. New York City. p. 8. Retrieved August 27, 2020 via Internet Archive.
  3. Bristow, Gwen (May 20, 2014). Tomorrow is Forever: A Novel. Open Road Media. ISBN   978-1-4804-8518-1.
  4. "New Movie Moppet". Life . 19 (22): 87–88. November 26, 1945. Retrieved August 27, 2020.
  5. Rosenbaum, Jonathan (2007). Discovering Orson Welles. University of California Press. p. 10. ISBN   978-0-5202-4738-3 . Retrieved August 27, 2020.
  6. Crowther, Bosley (February 22, 1946). "The Screen" . The New York Times.
  7. "Tomorrow Is Forever". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
  8. "Tomorrow Is Forever". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2023-10-13.